‘Dark day for humankind’

Israel rejected the United Nations' resolution for a humanitarian truce in Gaza as Jerusalem's top diplomat in the country said the multilateral organization swallowed whole the Palestinian version of the conflict.

Israeli Ambassador Ilan Fluss said Saturday the UN resolution totally adopted the Palestinian narrative and did not take into consideration Israel's side.

"There was no condemnation of Hamas terrorism, no calling for the immediate release of hostages, and there was no context on Hamas having initiated a terror attack on Israel," Fluss said.

He lamented, "There was not even a mention of Israel's right of self-defense, no call on Iran to stop supplying weapons to Hamas or halting its financing of terrorism, no mention of the escalation of the Hezbollah terror attacks on Israel."

He indicated that "there were so many concerns for Israel that made us respond and enter into a war because of the terror attack on 7 October, but all of these were not in the resolution, and so we voted against it."

Israel is totally rejecting the resolution, according to Fluss. He said the UN action has no binding mechanism, and it was more of a call of the multilateral body.

"So, we are totally ignoring the resolution and instead, Israel is focusing on two issues: to make sure that Hamas cannot attack Israel again by dismantling all of its terror facilities, and the return of all hostages kidnapped from Israel," Fluss added.

In his remarks at the UN General Assembly Emergency Special Session, Israel's Permanent Representative Gilad Erdan criticized the UN since "the truth holds zero importance in this body."

The majority of the world community has shown that it prefers to support the defense of "Nazi terrorists rather than support the law-abiding state of Israel to defend its civilians," he said.

"The UN no longer holds even one ounce of legitimacy or relevance," Erdan later posted on X.

"Israel categorically rejects the General Assembly resolution passed this afternoon that does not even name Hamas — not once! As if this war started on its own! Even when discussing our hostages, the drafters could not even bring themselves to name the Hamas terrorists responsible for this blatant war crime."

"Israel will continue to defend itself. Israel will do what must be done to eradicate Hamas's capabilities and bring the hostages home," Erdan said.

As condemnation poured on the UN resolution, Israel pounded the Hamas-run Gaza Strip with air and artillery strikes on Saturday after an intense night of attacks where it said 150 "underground targets" were hit.

No official toll was immediately given, but a Gaza civil defense official told AFP a "large number" of dead was feared from one of the most intense nights of attacks in Israel's war in response to the Hamas attacks on 7 October.

Israel has been building up to a ground invasion since Hamas fighters crossed the border and killed 1,400 people, mainly civilians, and took more than 220 hostages.

Airstrikes destroyed hundreds of buildings in the Gaza Strip overnight, the civil defense service in the Hamas-controlled Palestinian territory said on Saturday.

"Hundreds of buildings and houses were completely destroyed, and thousands of other homes were damaged," Mahmud Bassal, a spokesman for the Gaza Civil Defense told AFP, adding that the intense bombardments had "changed the landscape" of northern Gaza.

A thick haze of smoke covered Gaza and southern Israel after the night of heavy bombardment, according to AFP correspondents.

More air raids and artillery shelling were reported after daybreak, but these were less intense than during the night.

The Gaza civil defense official told AFP: "There are a large number of martyrs and a large number of survivors under the rubble, and we cannot reach them."

Residents told AFP a tank shell damaged the Indonesian Hospital in Beit Lahia, and there was major damage around Al-Shifa hospital, Gaza's biggest, where thousands of people had taken refuge.

The Israeli army has charged that Hamas fighters were using hospitals in Gaza to "wage war" against Israel.

'Big plan'

Since the 7 October attacks, Israel has warned about 1.1 million people in northern Gaza that they should move to the south.

The Israeli military believes the Hamas leadership and its main infrastructure are concentrated in the north.

An unnamed officer quoted in an Israeli military account on X said: "We are bombarding Gaza with an intensity never before seen in the Gaza Strip. From the air, from the ground, and from underground, the IDF will eliminate every senior and junior terrorist and all Hamas terrorist infrastructure."

Ground offensive yet to start

Just before the latest strikes, a senior Israeli officer said the raids did not mark the start of the ground assault.

"When the war starts, we will know it, we will hear it, we will see it," Col.  Golan Vach, head of Israel's search and rescue operation, said.

"It is going to be lethal, and it is going to take time. What you saw in the past two days of small forces movements inside and outside of Gaza were for other reasons — not so much operational but part of the big plan."

More than eight hours of night attacks on the besieged Palestinian territory into the early hours of Saturday rattled windows and shook the ground in Ashkelon, 10 kilometers from the Gaza border.

Smell of war

Smoke and the pungent smell of burning material filled the air in the city that has been mainly evacuated since the attacks, an AFP correspondent said.

Israeli military jets continued to fly overhead Saturday, and regular concussive booms could be heard coming from Gaza.

Israel has rejected calls for respite in Gaza as its closest allies in the West have coalesced around the idea of "humanitarian pauses," or temporary stops to the bombardment.

Israel says any respite from the fighting benefits Hamas, which it is determined to destroy, and which it says diverts aid such as water, fuel, food, and medicine to its fighters.

"A ceasefire means giving Hamas time to rearm itself so they can massacre us again," Erdan told the UN General Assembly on Thursday, calling it "an attempt to tie Israel's hands."                                          

With AFP